Spain 🇪🇸

Well, duh. I live here. What can I say? Beautiful country, awesome food, friendly people. You can go to the most lost, random, small town in the middle of nowhere, and it will still have bars with delicious food, nice owners, a beautiful church, and a main square. I honestly think you could spend half your life exploring this country and never get tired of it.

First picture is Gandia, Valencia. Second picture is the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.

Finland 🇫🇮

I spent 8 months studying abroad in Finland through the Erasmus programme. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I had tons of fun, met new people, and grew as a person.

I even went to Rovaniemi and visited Santa Claus Village! I rode in a dog sled and tried to see the northern lights. Unfortunately, the days I spent there saw very little solar activity, so I didn't manage to see them :(

Positives

• Snow: We don't get a lot of snow in the area I live in Spain, so it was super cool to experience that in Finland. It had an awesome vibe, and I felt like a kid playing in it. It also makes for some beautiful pictures.
• Tap Water: I never had to buy water bottles in Finland. The tap water quality was really good, and it tasted awesome.
• Dining Out: Eating outside is generally expensive, but I found a loophole: Asian buffets. They were affordable and delicious.
• Facilities: The public facilities, like the campus where I studied, are incredible. It felt like I was in one of those big tech offices like Google or Microsoft.
• Public Transport: Getting around Finland is awesome and very easy. Trains and buses are clean for the most part and have nice mobile apps to check schedules and buy tickets. Also, since I had a student card, I always got discounts on the train.
• Sports Culture: I felt like Finland had a mainstream sports culture. There were a lot of high-quality gyms at good prices, and you could find supplements like protein and creatine at almost every supermarket.
• The People: At first, people can seem cold, but if you actually get to meet them, they are really nice. In my case, the cashiers in supermarkets were always super friendly, and so were my teachers.
• Summer: I got to experience a little bit of spring/summer (I left in late May), and I gotta tell you: months of cold and darkness really pay off when summer hits. We got sun almost every day, and the temperature was warm but pleasant (nothing like the scorching heat in Spain). Also, Finland has a lot of vegetation, so everything was green and smelled fresh. The long daylight hours in those last months were the best, no doubt.
• Sauna: My building also had a sauna—as expected from the country with the most saunas per capita—and it was free once a week. My roommate and I always went before going to sleep. It was always empty, and not only did it feel awesome, but it knocked you out cold. On sauna days, I slept like a log.
• Chocolate: Make sure to buy some Fazer bars at the airport on your way back for your family & friends!
• Perkele: Awesome word.

Negatives

• Groceries: Compared to Spain, good meat was hard to come by in supermarkets, and vegetables were more expensive. I guess it has to do with the harsh climate.
• Snow (The bad kind): I slipped several times. On one occasion, I landed hard on my back and had terrible pain in my lower back for several days.
• Winter: Winter is very harsh, especially when it comes to sunlight hours. It really had an impact on my mood. It felt weird having merienda (afternoon snack) at 4:00 PM and it already being pitch black outside.
• School Food: The food on the campus I was staying at was...really bad. Lunch at my home university in Spain was so much better and only cost about 2-3€ more.

First picture is Helsinki. Second picture is in Syväsenvaara Obervation Tower, Rovaniemi. Third picture is the Savonlinna Castle.

Portugal 🇵🇹

I visited Viana do Castelo, Oporto, and Braga.

The picture is from the Bom Jesus do Monte sanctuary.

Estonia 🇪🇪

Estonia is just a ferry ride from Helsinki, so it is compulsory to visit if you travel to Finland. Tallinn is a beautiful city, and I even got to visit the famous Christmas market there.

First picture is the old town of Tallin. Second picture is from Tallin's Christmas market.

France 🇫🇷

I visited Paris with my family since it is just a train ride away from Barcelona. I don't have much to say other than it was great. We visited the classics: The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe...

First picture is the Eiffel tower. Second picture is in the Louvre Museum.

Italy 🇮🇹

I visited Italy several years ago with my family for a holiday. We went to Milan and Venice. There was only one problem: we went during summer, and the heat was unbearable. The day we visited Venice, it reached almost 40ºC. The food was really good, of course.